The past 13 months were bad for racing game fans. Two of the best developers in the genre closed their doors. Bizarre Creations, which made Blur and Project Gotham Racing, was shuttered. After that, Black Rock Studios, the creator of… Continue Reading →

The past 13 months were bad for racing game fans. Two of the best developers in the genre closed their doors. Bizarre Creations, which made Blur and Project Gotham Racing, was shuttered. After that, Black Rock Studios, the creator of Split/Second and Pure, followed suit. With the dissolution of these teams, there was a lot of talent out there.

At the same time, Turn 10 was looking to expand its Forza franchise. That misfortune and that opportunity intersected at Playground Games. Started by four former Codemaster developers, the team embarked on creating their own racing game and shared the same vision and enthusiasm for autoracing as Turn 10. The initial core quickly grew as it picked up team members from the shuttered U.K. companies.

The result of their collective work is an upcoming spin-off called Forza Horizon. Not much is known about the project other than it’s coming this fall. But with top talent from those big studios, this game can easily be a top-tier racing title. It’s almost like the Miami Heat of racing developers.

Yes, Porsches will make their debut in Forza Motorsports 4.

BIG DLC NEWS: Along with announcement of Forza Horizon at the Xbox 360 Spring Showcase, the franchise’s creative director Dan Greenwalt highlighted some of the upcoming DLC for Forza Motorsports 4. The upcoming Pirelli pack will feature a mix of high-end classics such as the Aston Martin Zagato and lower-end vehicles like the Ford Country Squire (complete with wood panels on the side). That comes out in March 6 along with a title update that lifts the level cap to 999 from 150. Greenwalt said they wanted to satisfy those hard-core gamers.

But the big news is the return of Porsche. One of the big controversies simmering beneath Forza Motorsports 4’s release was the lack of Porsche due to legal contracts. Turn 10 had to work with EA, which owned the license, and the German car company to fit it into the series, Greenwalt said.

The negotiations took longer than expected and they knew it wouldn’t make the deadline for release, but nevertheless, talks continued and the result is a Porsche pack coming in May. It will include 30 Porsches that includes seven never-before-seen cars in the series. Along with the new vehicles, there’ll be 20 new events curated to include those cars. Even the AI will hop in when competing around the track. The one caveat is that there’s no word on Autovista support yet, but here’s hoping. You have to love the detail Turn 10 puts into re-creating these high-end vehicles.

The James Bond movie franchise appears to be in dire straits nowadays. There hasn’t been a new film since 2008, and from the looks of it, there won’t be any new ones for a while. According to Entertainment Weekly, the… Continue Reading →

The James Bond movie franchise appears to be in dire straits nowadays. There hasn’t been a new film since 2008, and from the looks of it, there won’t be any new ones for a while. According to Entertainment Weekly, the franchise’s owner, MGM, put itself up for sale last November, but with no buyers yet any 007 movie would be put on hold. That could mean no Bond movies for years. So where can fans get their fix?

Activision’s Bizarre Creations is stepping up to the task, developing a standalone entry to the franchise. Blood Stone boasts high production values with Daniel Craig as Bond and Joss Stone as his love interest. The singer does voice work and even wrote the opening theme. To top that off, the team got GoldenEye co-writer Bruce Feirstein, actress Judi Dench and the past film’s costume designer on board.

With all that talent, Blood Stone may be the closest fans will get to an actual Bond film for a while.

With the Hollywood stars aligned, I was curious to see how the video game side fared. How does Blood Stone play exactly? Well, the game’s a mix of driving and shooting. Designer Sandy Lockie said that Bizarre Creations wanted to capture the grim determination of Craig’s Bond. “What makes him interesting is how he reacts when things go wrong,” he said.

In the demo, Bond crash lands in the Burmese jungle while chasing after a villain through the air. Luckily, he survives only to find himself under attack; the villain, whose identity is kept secret, sends guys over to confirm that 007 is dead. That’s when the shooting happens. Blood Stone does feature a cover system. Bond looks like he can move easily around barricades, trees and columns. He also has something called a Focus Aim that lets the player slow down time so that he can pull the trigger for instant kill shots. He can even chain them together to take out a room. Bond can hold up to three Focus Aim shots at a time, and they’re replenished via melee attack.

The system is similar to Wanted: Weapons of Fate. But that doesn’t mean the combat isn’t novel. The ace up Blood Stone’s sleeve is Bond’s gadgets. More specifically, it’s his smart phone, which he’ll rely on constantly. It gives Bond an augmented reality layout of the battlefield, showing him enemy positions and their situational awareness. They can either be on alert (red), cautious (yellow) or unaware of his presence (green). Like any other spy, 007 can sneak through levels and silently take out his foes or go in guns blazing. It’s up to the player on how to proceed.

In addition, the phone is also used for identifying collectibles and pick-ups. They expand the story and provide more depth for the hard-core Bond fans. Lastly, it can be used to find enemy weaknesses and solve puzzles. For instance, farther in the Burmese jungle, Bond comes under attack by a helicopter. He can try to attack it head-on with missiles or small arms, but a smart player will use the phone to identify a crane. They’ll realize that the copter is hovering underneath a few large pipes the crane is carrying, and they can canter up the stairs to the controls and release them. The one caveat is that players can’t use the phone and shoot at the same time. So Bond will have to memorize enemy locations once he puts away his gadget and starts shooting up a place.

When it comes to driving, Bizarre Creations’ experience with Project Gotham Racing and Blur comes into effect. There’s a great sense of speed and arcade sensibilities to the race scenarios. Don’t expect anything like Gran Turismo. Playing these stages is more about dodging traffic and collapsing buildings and the thrill of surviving that wreckage.

In the level I played, Bond had to keep up with a source named Pomerov who was escaping via train in Siberia. Bond drives through what looks like an oil refinery or a power plant. He steers his Aston Martin DB5 through that complex and ends up on a frozen river. Things get more hairy when yet another helicopter swoops by and starts destroying the ice.

Things move so fast and the difference between water and ice isn’t so apparent that players will end up in the drink at least a few times. I couldn’t see anything special about the car, but at least, players have the option of switching the perspective to bumper.

Finally, the last level I saw ended up being the beginning of the game. Bond sky dives onto a yacht and proceeds to eliminate enemies. That’s how your introduced to some of his more vicious moves. Bond can look around a corner and if a henchman is unaware he can rush into him and take him out quick. Of course, he can also sneak up behind foes and knock them unconscious. For the most part, things seem to go smoothly until he alerts the guards and like a lot of things concerning 007, the situation goes awry. He ends up escaping an RPG attack and pursuing his target through the waters near Athens.

The boat chase shows that Bizarre Creations can work outside of its comfort zone. Driving a sea vessel, players experience a level that’s less linear than the car chase. There’s also another mechanic, where Bond can shoot at pursuers with just a press of a button when he gets close enough. It looks as though the developer did a decent job with it. But that’s something that I like about Bizarre. It can work in a variety of genres from The Club (third-person shooter), Geometry Wars (minigames) and of course racing. I’m sure that the team will have the chops to create a memorable Bond experience while the rest of the world waits to see where the film franchise will end up.

Although sim racing has dominated the store shelves for the better part of a decade, the next few months could show that arcade racing is making a comeback. Two developers known for their racing chops will be offering their take on the genre. Bizarre Creations, long known for its Project Gothan Racing series, is working on a new project that mixes kart racing with real-world cars and Black Rock Studio, makers of Pure, offers a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay sensibility to wheeling around the track.

With Blur, Bizarre Creations creates an unlikely combination: It’s a kart racer that uses 60 real-world cars and 47 tracks based on 14 different environments. At E3, I had a chance to check out the game, and I had fun with the concept. There’s definitely a concreteness there that separates the title from the cartoonish roots of the genre.

You definitely won’t be throwing around turtle shells or using mushrooms for boost. Instead, players will race around familiar-looking locales (I thought I was driving through L.A. at one point.) and use weapons with real-world concepts like shunt, shock, barge, nitro and mines. Players also have shield which absorb some of these weapons but to actually use it, they’ll have to press the X button at the right moment.

Overall, the game has a good sense of speed. It moves fairly quickly and with so much going on, sometimes it’s hard to focus on which direction to go. I often crashed because I was worrying about cars shunting me instead of the right-angle turn. I suppose that’s what happens when there’s 20 cars on the track at the same time.

But even if you do lose a race, you don’t go home empty handed. Players always receive funds after every contest so that they can improve their ride at the in-game shop.

As for the online component, Blur will feature races in an open world. Bizarre Creations says there’ll be constant interaction and messaging between players and the ability to create custom games. In addition, there’ll be a Photo Mode because frankly no racing game is complete without one and a Web site that shows online leaderboards.

While Blur is an interesting mashup of established genres, Split/Second tries to put a twist on the arcade racer with the ability to change the tricks during midrace.

It doesn’t sound like much until you play it, and after my initial impressions at E3, Black Rock’s execution could make the concept successful. Everything from the HUD, which is built into the bumper of the car so that players focus on it, to the track design is gorgeous and thought-out.

It almost feels as if you were in a Hollywood action flick. Players will take down jumbo jets and topple air control towers. There are probably going to be more explosions in Split/Second than Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

When it comes to gameplay, the team stretches the concept of a destructable track (in the game the move is called a Powerplay) and creates some interesting strategies. Players can use the Powerplay in little spurts to temporarily knock out racers from the track or they could save the Powerplay and boost it up so they could create a game-changing short cut or disruption on the track.

Overall, the game looks smart and with the ability to play split-screen and online multiplayer. Split/Second could be another great effort from the studio.